Massaging the global culture


In March, 2022, Rhobin Courtright would like to know what messages my books give to my readers.

Terribly sorry, but it’s affliction of mine. I cannot help it. I cannot have the word “message” in my mind without “massage,” and vice versa.

Wait a minute. Actually, it is quite apt. To me, “message” suggests a strident call, a soapbox delivery of a sermon. If anyone preaches at me, I run the other way, so why should I inflict it on innocent people whose only crime is to read one of my books?

“Massage,” however, is the gentle treatment of a painful spot on the body; soothing, healing, putting things to rights.

Let’s do that instead.

I have said it before, you cannot write even a shopping list without exposing your value system. A 100 word story (yes, I have several) will certainly do so. Therefore, everything we write is guaranteed to massage our message. No need to preach: if we write to entertain, we’ll be doing the massaging automatically.

(Now, don’t get me going on “enter tain.” Tain is a place of… No. That’s for another time.)

As you can see, I have already revealed one of my messages:

Life is too short for the seriousness it deserves.

What’s that got to do with global culture? Nothing, but it’s not the only thing I am about. Another value is:

Every sentient being is an apprentice Jesus; apprentice Buddha.

This colours everything I write, including every one of my published books, even practical self-help like Woodworking for Idiots like me.

My last four novels to be published are:

Maraglindi is actually a Jesus/Buddha person who has been assigned to us little humans as a guide, and so needs to learn what it is to be human. You can get a sense of how this empowers the story by reading the latest, very perceptive review by Michael Muntisov.

The massage toward enlightenment is less visible in Sleeper, Awake, but you will find it in the way almost every person in the story grows spiritually.

Hit and Run is explicitly about the power of unconditional love to reform even the worst criminal, but certainly not by preaching. Rather, it is a matter of conflict and pain and despair leading to hope and cooperation and decency, thanks to the untiring work of an old lady who considers herself to be all too faulty, but is in my opinion in fact an enlightened spirit. So, perhaps there is hope for you and me? Well, certainly for you…

And finally, Ascending Spiral shows how one person can advance and backslide, commit terrible acts and benefit from them, but overall, in life after life, grow.

Next message to massage:

I am a Professional Grandfather.

The job specification is that everything I do, including my writing, is intended to work for a survivable future for the youngsters of the present, and one worth surviving in.

Believe it or not, this is actually the same message as the previous one. Let me unpack it. (Again, doesn’t that lead to amusing images?)

Currently, no, we do not have a survivable future. Today’s youngsters are “Generation Z,” and if business as usual continues, that label is prophetic. Going back to the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry some 10,000 years ago, every generation has stolen from its future. This is it: there is no more future to steal from. We need to change the global culture (got to it!) or we’ll join the dodo. According to best predictions, we still have a chance of saving a future, but it is a SMALL window.

I won’t go into how we are unravelling the web of life, but it is a long list of suicidal actions. All of them are symptoms of a culture that rewards and encourages the worst in human nature: greed, fear-and-hate (which is the one monster), short term thinking. Our one hope is a miraculous transformation into a global culture of empathy, decency, cooperation, examining the long-term implications of our actions.

The second part, building a future worth surviving in, is one of empathy, decency, cooperation, examining the long-term implications of our actions.

Even if it didn’t save the world, wouldn’t it be better to live in such a society?

How to achieve it? You’ve got it. If most people realised they are apprentice enlightened spirits, we’d be there. Because, how does an apprentice learn? In two ways: By learning from a master, and by making mistakes and learning from them. Many enlightened spirits have shown us how. I am sure you can think of several examples, but I’ll only quote one. The Dalai Lama has said, “My religion is kindness. The purpose of enlightenment is to be of service.”

So, hurry up and get enlightened, and when you do, PLEASE explain to me how I can do it, too!

One way is to do acts of kindness, as His Holiness has said. You can start right now by commenting on my rave. Then, please head over to the wonderful ladies listed below, and read their no doubt more serious answers to Rhobin’s question.


Marci Baun
Rhobin Courtright
Skye Taylor
Connie Vines
Diane Bator
Helena Fairfax

About Dr Bob Rich

I am a professional grandfather. My main motivation is to transform society to create a sustainable world in which my grandchildren and their grandchildren in perpetuity can have a life, and a life worth living. This means reversing environmental idiocy that's now threatening us with extinction, and replacing culture of greed and conflict with one of compassion and cooperation.
This entry was posted in fun, philosophy, Rhobin's round robin, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to Massaging the global culture

  1. Bob, I especially love your line about urging people to be enlightened – and then hurry up and teach you what it means. You have a great message right there. We should never assume we’re the enlightened ones. I really enjoyed your entertaining – and enlightening! – post 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Rhobin says:

    Another humorous and insightful view of the topic. You massaged it just right.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dr Bob Rich says:

      Thank you Rhobin. I’ve just finished a 5000 word story, seeing the world through the eyes of a criminal, but I am afraid I wasn’t able to inject much humor into it.
      🙂

      Like

  3. Marci says:

    All of us are on our own path to enlightenment with some predetermined lessons and some we choose along the way. Then we have collective karma. We have to make different, more enlightened choices and learn our lessons if we are going to evolve, or we can refuse and be stuck in that perpetual loop. Sometimes, that seems like where we are as humans. It’s rather frustrating.

    I try not to preach in my stories. It’s all generated by the character and their journey. Their internal struggle and the surrounding events are what move the story forward. I don’t like preachy material, so I hope that mine isn’t preachy either. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Skye-writer says:

    Considering you didn’t want to preach, you surprisingly delivered a sermon!!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dr Bob Rich says:

      Skye, there is a difference between writing an essay and writing fiction. It’s a little hard to saying what the meaning is without saying what the meaning is.
      🙂

      Like

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